Sony announces The Last of Us Part II remaster for PS5

Naughty Dog officially announced The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PS5 on Friday evening following a bunch of leaks about the game earlier in the day. The game will be released on January 19th, 2024 — just like the leaks said.

The biggest new addition seems to be a “roguelike survival mode” called No Return that’s “designed to let players prove their mettle in randomized encounters and experience The Last of Us Part II’s combat in a fresh experience,” Naughty Dog’s Jonathon Dornbush said in the announcement blog post. You’ll be able to play as some new characters and work through “various stealth and combat encounters that will pit you against a range of enemies, with unique twists that can add new, unexpected factors to any given encounter.”

As for technical improvements, Dornbush says the game offers native 4K output in fidelity mode, 1440p upscaled to 4K when in performance mode, and if you are using a TV that supports VRR, there’s an option to unlock framerate. You can also expect improved loading times and DualSense features like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.

In addition to the new roguelike mode, there’s also a new guitar free play mode with unlockable instruments, the ability to experience some incomplete levels that were cut from the original game, developer commentary for those cut levels and the main campaign’s cutscenes, and a speed run mode.

If you already own The Last of Us Part II on PS4, you can upgrade to the digital version of Remastered for $10. You can also bring over your saves from the original to Remastered.

Unfortunately, the second season of HBO’s excellent The Last of Us adaptation might be a long ways away — in the meantime, at least you can play through Remastered to freshen up some of the story beats we might see play out.